WuW - Rien Ne Nous Sera Épargné

Leon : Nothing will be spared, that’s the translation of the album title ‘Rien Ne Nous Sera Épargné’. It makes me think of a thrash metal band that is planning on ripping your head off, but nothing is further from the truth, the ‘band’ WuW makes minimalistic experimental progressive rock with psychedelic influences. Maybe they mean that they will spare nothing of your mental state? Anyway, WuW is a duo formed by the Colin brothers and, even though they’ve been making music for some time, they haven’t released anything worth mentioning yet. The Parisians are hoping that ‘Rien Ne Nous Sera Épargné’ will be a turning point.

Before listening to the music I was reading through the information that the label had included, where I read that the gentleman had used the following instruments during the recording of the album: Tibetan bowls and cymbals, African small bells played with goat nails and an array of old synthesizers and electric organs, they also tried to record as few takes as possible to capture the raw beauty of the creative act. After reading this I was dreading to listen the album, as the hippie-level of that text was too far out of my comfort zone. Even though I really do see music as a form of art I need to make the connection to paintings, many people love Rembrandt van Rijn’s paintings, but only few can really appreciate an abstract expressionistic work of Jackson Pollock. WuW made an album that leans towards a select audience who enjoy the free spirit of the music. The music is definitely not bad, you can listen to it albeit without any enjoyment. The rhythm is slow, a bit like doom, and the instrumentation exists mostly out of wide stretched parts. To be honest, it’s boring.

It’s difficult to write a lot about albums such as ‘Rien Ne Nous Sera Épargné’, they just fall into a bucket that’s not accessible to the mainstream audience. For me it’s an album that I can’t do anything with, there’s too little happening, no dynamic, and there’s no real melodic parts that get stuck in your head. Perhaps that there are people who get really excited when they’re reading about Tibetan bowls and cymbals, and African small bells with goat nails, but I think many people will not know what to do with this record.